President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. admitted in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) that people were disappointed with the government in the past three years as he vows to work harder to improve public service in the next half of his term.

"The message of the result of the recent election is very clear to me. The people were disappointed with the government, especially the primary services," Marcos said as he delivered his fourth SONA in Quezon City on Monday.

"The lesson is simple: we need to excel. We need to move faster," he added.

Noting that the government has proven that bringing down the price of rice to P20 a kilo is possible, Marcos vows to go after traders who will take advantage and manipulate the prices of rice in the country.

"I am warning the traders who will attempt to manipulate the price of rice or who will take advantage of our farmers. We will go after you, because we will treat what you're doing as economic sabotage," he said.

Marcos also announced the return of the "Love Bus", the first air-conditioned bus in the country which became popular in offering lower fares in 1970's.

"We will not just bring back the "Love Bus" but it will now offer free rides," he said.

"It is just the start, what we have in Davao and Cebu are just pilot testing. It will be followed by other areas in Visayas and Mindanao," he added.

Marcos noted that good economic data is useless as people continue to struggle due to hardship.

"If we're going to talk about data, our economy is doing good, the confidence of the businessmen increased, inflation slowed down, the number of jobs grew. These are just decorations, it's meaningless if our people continue to experience hardship," he said.

"That is why in the last three years of my Administration, we will pour everything. Not just to match the expectation of the people but we will exceed the delivery of services in providing relief to our people," he added. Robina Asido/DMS